dinsdag 31 juli 2012

The first week at my Host Family



Last couple of days I wrote my blog for everyday but because I dont have internet ill upload it now:


Domingo, 22 julio 2012 22:29
The end of the beginning & again first days.

On thursday at camp we went to San José for our Visums, this was really the ‘Costa Rica way’ We had to wait for 2 hours or something. I sat in a small office with an old guy who was writing stuff down from my application to his computer, at first he had problems with my name… after that he didn’t believe I was going to highschool because I’m to tall for highschool. After all that we went back to the camp and we had some lessons, at night we had a campfire which was nice, had a good talk with a young guy from EF about exchange, Orotina and other stuff. On Friday, the last day we went to the museum with a beautifull butterfly garden, outside was a market, a did some quality shoppimg with Ellie, didn’t buy something though. After that we had a game at the camp. Then in the evening German Henry already left which was not cool. Because German Henry left we decided we needed some ‘bro time’, so it was some bro time. Later in the evening we did some last chilling. In the morning it was packing time, that went pretty good anyway, then it was goodbyes and stuff and on the bus to Orotina!
I arrived at my host family around 11:30, we just talked a little, unpacked and washed my stuff and I gave presents and the out of house living brothers and sisters came by except for that we didn’t really do anything. I went to sleep around 18:00 because I was really really tired.
Today was a way better day as yesterday! In the morning I had breakfast with bread and creamcheese, also I introduced hagelslag (chocolate sprinkels) to my family, they really liked it! went to Orotina downtown with Petei to buy some stuff, we didn’t get to buy everything because it was Sunday and some stuff was closed. When we came back we had lunch I forgot what it was but it was nice. Later around 15:00 I went to a friend of my Host mom Lucy who rented a house near by. That house was EPIC, it has a really big garden with all kind of fruits, which I could all pick because I’m so tall ( I’m like to tallest person they have ever seen). Also there was family of the friend of Lucy, they were all around 20-25 and having a little party cuz the hostess has her birthday. I had tasted some fruit which I still dont know the name of but it was really really nice also i tried very very good fish salad, which I dont know the name of. I eat very nice here, I dont know the name of most of the stuff but I just try everything. We drink lemonade all day with fresh lemons from the lemon tree outside.
The family is very nice, Lucy the mom helps me with everything and is awesome, Petei the husband of Lucy is really nice aswell, he speaks english so he translates alot and tells me alla bout Costa Rica, he works in Arizona and has to go back there within a month, so I better speak spanish before that! Ivon, the 15 year old daughter is very sweet, she speaks a little english and she knows everything about Orotina and San Mateo. Eloy, my 13 year old brother is very cool, yesterday I met some of his friends, thet all do BMX, and 2 weeks ago he broke his foot doing BMX so we cant play soccer or anything for 6 months . Then there is Jeffrey + girlfriend, Jeffrey is cool aswell he mountainbikes and works somehere, I didn’t talk to the girldfriend much yet. Today I met Sandy + boyfriend, they don’t live in the house either but they do live close, they also have a little kid who is very fun. Also I share a room with my bro which I think is nice.
The house is very open, there are only doors to the bath and bedrooms, there is no airconditiong, internet, hotwater, a car or anything, it is back to basis! The garden is nice with some fruit trees.

Lunes, 23 Julio 2012 21:16
First ‘school day’

Today I woke up around 6, had a shower and some breakfast and went to school together with Ivon, the school is in a village nearby and the bus is free. At school I first walked around with Ivon and some of her friends. The school is very big, there are like 7 buildings! And a lot of grass field. After that I went to see the dean/librarian. He is very nice but most of all CRAZY, it’s very hard to descripe, but he teaches me Spanish in trade of me teaching him English. Then I met the director, he didn’t speak Spanish, so the dean ( Julio) translated us, but that conversation was much interesting.
Tomorrow I go to see the private school Santa Fe Pacific. It’s propably very expensive because of the lunch and stuff, but I will see tomorrow. Now I’m going to sleep, we sleep very early here, it now is 21:25.
Buenas Noches <3
I wrote this blog on word since I dont have internet, ill try to post it as soon as possible along with the pictures on Facebook.

Tuesday, 24 July 2012 23:02
A good day
As the title already says, today was a good day, I had 13 hours of sleep and woke up around 22:30, after breakfast with some I have no idea of which it was I was kinda bored because nobody was doing anything, I felt kinda misplaced and started thinking about home, that made a little homesick.
At the park we meet up with Lucy and we walked to Santa Fe Pacific, during the walk there was some nice thunder and lightening. Apprently we didn’t have something like a meeting with the principal which I expected, we just walked around the school. The school was nice but very small and everybody speaks English, which I don’t want because I want to learn Spanish. So I decided to go to CTP San Mateo, also because my family really stimulates me to go there. Then we walked back to the busstop and took the bus home, during the walk the moesson rain burstud loose on us, which I actually liked! During this part of the day I felt bonding with Lucy & Pete.
In the afternoon we had lunch with something nice, don’t know what it is either. The afternoon was nice because I finally had some good conversations with the family members (in Spanish)! Also we had some laughs and made weird faces photo’s. Also I saw a huge frog. In the evening I had some very nice rice Ivon made.
After dinner I went to Jeffrey’s house, my host brother together with Ivon to watch a movie. The movie was very nice, a comic movie, but religious aswell, it was very good. The whole family is religious, but they don’t mind me not begin religious, that’s nice. The movie made me think about religion, I think it’s not right to judge it, it’s just a lifestyle, something which give purpose to people’s lives and what helps them in bad times, it’s not good, it’s not wrong it’s just different.
Through out all of these days I have been texting with my friends from camp, and they make me realize what real friendship is, it’s not only laughs and doing fun things, it’s also caring and sharing. Even though I know them all for 1 week I think these friendships must be maintained and kept alive wherever in the world and in which language spoken, They are amazing people!





Wednesday 25 July 2012 22:12
Best day so far?
As the title says, I think today was the best day so far. I woke up because of 2 calls of Ruth, an other girl from the exchange progam, I fell back a sleep and 1 hour later I texted a little and rushed to downtown Orotina to meet up with her, poor Ruth has been sitting there for 2 hours.. ( sorry Ruth!) In Orotina I had my breakfast with some very cheap and very nice bread and a chocolate & banana milkshake. Together with Ruth we discovered a little of Orotina, we bought some nice mango’s of a guy along the road who didn’t realize he was cutting my fingers together with the mango’s, but it were some very nice mango’s! After walking around for 1,5 hours we felt hungry again so we got some chicken, that which was nice either but expensive, I really should ask for prices before buying. After the chicken we sat in the park a little talking about the culture shock and stuff, I saw a huge squirrel and some nasty bugs. After sitting in the parkw e had 1 hour left before Ruth had to go, we decided to go to the supermarket, don’t know why but it was a good decision, at the supermarket was a restaurant, I got an cappuccino which I think is the best I ever had. At supermarket / restaurant also was good WiFi, that was very nice because I could finally get in contact with back home. At 14:30 I went home, after some searching I finally found where it was again .
Back home I watched soccer with the family and I saw some family photo’s. The big brother Jeffrey living down the road invited me to play soccer with him and his friends, very nice of him. So in the evening I went to his house and we walked to a sort of recreation centre. We played cinqo-cinqo 5 against 5, very fast, very serious and very much fun, most of the people playing where between 25-35 and very nice, I really liked it!
Here is a list of facts a noticed while my first days here in Costa Rica:
• On the TV is everything in Spanish, it is either Mexican shows or American shows with a voice-over, all of them are soaps, good for learning Spanish!
• Bugs here make so much noise!
• Every Costa Rican song has ‘pura vida’ in it.
• On the television there is commercial evey 5 minutes but commercials only last for 30 seconds.
• BMX is very popular.
• I’m the tallest person they have ever seen.
• Nobody believes I’m seventeen because of my length.
• School is from 7:00 to 16:00
Don’t know more for now but that will come later.
Tomorrow is my first real day of school, I’m excited but I have to get up at 6:00, so now it’s time to sleep!
Buenos Noches!

Thursday 26 July 2012 22:43
First schoolday!
Today was the first day of real school, I met my IEC at the busstop, at school we first did some paperwork and after that some took me to my class. My class is awesome, they are very nice everybody got introduced by someone, everybody was nice, funny and all that stuff, better as some stuff in dutch schools. School it self was crazy aswellA classmate gave me the timetable, it turns out to be that on Monday, Wednesday and Friday I have Turismo all day, no idea what we will do during those days. Furthermore I have Spanish, Biology, Chemics, turismo, religion, politica, and English. Bio and chemics will be very hard for me because I didn’t do that for 2 years and it is in Spanish. School is crazy because people walk in and out when they want, they come to class when they want, teachers show up only half of time, classes vary from 15 minutes to 2 hours, people play cars during the lessons, people play GTA on laptops during the laptops, very crazzzzy.
My first lesson was Spanish, we were in a maths classroom so I thought for the first half hour that it actually was maths, we did like high level grammar I didn’t get a single thing, the teacher was very nice and helped me a little bit. The second lesson was biology, I didn’t get a single thing, I just wrote down what the teacher wrote on the blackboard. After biology I went to the main chilling spot with some classmates, we stayed there for like half an hour then it turned out to be that there was no drinking water in the school so we didn’t had any lessons, so we went to a local festival in San Mateo where some of our classmates had a performance, which was nice. At 12:00 we had lunch, it only costs 30 eurocents. Then we chilled some more, I played a little GTA and uno with the class. At 13:00 we had politics, after 5 minutes I went to copy some stuff, when I came back 10 minutes later the class already ended. So we played uno again, at 14:00 we should have had gymnastics but the teacher wasn’t there so school has ended for that day. I decided to wait for my hostsister until I go home with the bus, so half of the class went to the music room, there we played some drums, guitar and keyboard, very loud and stuff and those tico’s are very good at music! At 16:00 I went home.
Today was lucy’s birthday so at 20:00 we had a little surprise party with all the brothers and sisters, with some cake, chips and cola. I hanged with my older brother, his girlfriend and his best friend and my little brother in the backyard for a few hours, it was very nice. Now I go to sleep, tomorrow a fieldtrip to 1 of the university’s of Costa Rica!
` Viernes 27 julio 2012 21:27
Fieldtrip!
Today was awesome, I went on a kind of fieldtrip with school. At 9 I got in the bus with Julio, the crazy dean. Apparantly this trip was only for people in their last year (6th) but I could join because I was an exchange student. These people were very nice aswell, I made plans to go skating and playing soccer.
First we went to the Universidad Nacionales in Heredia, a quite big city. First there was like introducing speech from some teacher and then we got a tour through the campus, kinda similar to the opendays for universities we had in Holland. The university was pretty nice, I couldn’t make pictures because I forget to charge my camera . After that we went to a mall to get some lunch and do a little shopping for those who wanted to, I just had lunched. I think the Costa Rica shopping malls are very similar to American onces which I’ve only seen in the movies. There’s a huge area with only fastfood restaurant, MacDonals, Burgerking, KFC, wendy’s, taco bell, subway, hamburger factory, pizzahut, eveerrryything. After the mall we went to a second more smaller university, at that university I had a little WiFi, so I actually spent almost all of my time there on my phone. Then we had to 1,5 hour busride hom left which was nice because I could see some more of Costa Rica.
When I got home there was nobody home and I didn’t had a key, muy stupido de mi. So I went to Orotina and sat in a restaurant with very good WiFi, there I could finally have some time to catch up with things. I’ll propably be uploading my blog and photo’s from there, I even had a little Spanish chat with the baristo. On my way back home I called with some other exchange students about stuff.
Tomorrow I go to the beach with Ruth, the other student living in Orotina, very excited about going to a Costa Rican beach for the first time!








Domingo 29 juli 2012 0:50

Lets go to the beach-each lets go get away! 
Today I went to the beach! Together with Ruth the other exchange student living in Orotina. At 8:00 we took the bus to Jaco Playa, for only 1,50 euro’s we could ride to buss for 42 kilometers in 75 minutes, The beach was amazing, rainforesthills on bothside, a beautiful pacific ocean and behind us, palmtrees and hotels. There also were very big waves in which we swam so nice! After a few hours we walked around Jaco as 100% tourists and we had lunch at a quite nice restaurant, after that we got back and the waves got even bigger, it so good to be in a wave and get thrown around all over the place! It was truly amazing at the beach!
When I got home we got an other surprise party for my hostmum, this time with more join people and it was more lik e a party, there were like 12 people around the house just talking, and eating chips and stuff. It was nice aswell for my first Costa Rican party.


XOXO

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